Questions about TP-Link Archer AX55's VPN settings

[Anthocyanina]

Hello, so, my father has become very into using VPNs for everything and is now thinking about buying a router with VPN client support to have every device on the network use the VPN he pays for. some of the sites and apps i use block VPN IPs, and so I would like for my devices to NOT use the VPN.

On the TP-Link website, there's an emulator thing for most routers, and the AX55 V4 has a Device List section under the VPN client settings and it looks like there's a way to turn off VPN access for specific devices. However, when looking around for routers that support that(selective VPN usage on specific devices) the AX55 isn't listed, and the various robots (chatgpt et al) say it does not.

So i'm asking anyone who owns this specific router if they can try to do that and confirm that it actually works that way(allows you to select which devices will connect through the VPN, and which ones won't)

I don't care if there are ways to bypass the VPN IP blocks, or if anyone thinks that shouldn't matter. I want to have confirmation of if this router does what i want it to do, or if it doesn't.

Thank you! 

[Hogwild]

What you're talking about is generically known as "policy-based routing". What VPN protocol is it you want to use? Before you go out and buy a new router, you might want to consider that OpenWRT, FreshTomato and DD-WRT free, open source router firmware all support VPN protocols, such as OpenVPN and Wireguard. You might want to look into those.

If you do decide to buy a new router, what you're looking for (if you need to speak with clueless salespeople) is whether certain traffic/clients can be routed normally, instead of through the VPN tunnel.